What Was I Thinking?: Lessons for a Lifetime - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

This book is about life; my life over the past 76 years and my experiences and the lessons I've learned, sometimes the hard way. I wrote an earlier book of my memories for my three grandsons and titled the last chapter as the most significant "life lessons" I wanted to pass along to them. This book expands the concept of life lessons that most parents and grandparents would like to pass along to their children and grandchildren to help them in their journey to and through adulthood. These lessons were passed on to me as family values, moral values and career lessons. I was fortunate to be the first person in my family to go to college because I could play a trumpet in the band at Eastern Kentucky University. I earned a degree in Accounting and Business in 1965 and became an officer in the Army because of my R.O.T.C. experience at Eastern. The Army provided me an opportunity to take my wife and young daughter to Europe, where we enjoyed two years in Verdun France and Zweibrucken Germany. As a Captain, I was then ordered to report to the 160th Signal Group at Long Binh Vietnam and was assigned to be the 40th Signal Battalion's supply officer, responsible for cable construction parts and the battalion's vehicle maintenance. At the end of my year in Vietnam, I was awarded the Bronze Star and Army Commendation medals for my leadership and my ingenuity in solving a critical cable part's problem. I then began a 20-year career with IBM in Lexington, Kentucky as a financial analyst, responsible for developing and tracking new product budgets and making long-term projections. After 3.5 years, I transferred to a sales position with IBM in Lexington. After 2.5 years, I was promoted to Product Planning where I developed financial projections for a new product concept. Having a need to move to North Carolina, I transferred back to sales in Winston-Salem, NC, where I worked for 11 years. While in sales, I made my sales quota each of my 14 years and made 150+% of my quota for 8 years and reached IBM's highest level of sales of 200+% two years (IBM's Golden Circle). It was while I was working full-time at IBM in Winston-Salem that I enrolled in and completed the MBA program at Wake Forest University, which helped me understand management and financial concepts within businesses. After 20 years with IBM, I bought an IBM typewriter dealership and a computer store with 4 partners. After three years in business, we discovered that one of our friends and partner had embezzled over $250,000 and didn't pay our taxes. That left me without a job, my salary, my $100,000 investment and my future with this company. A friend recommended me for a contract sales position with Lexmark, Int., an IBM spinoff, where I marketed laser printers to large accounts in NC. After two years, another friend recommended me for a sales position with Glory, USA, where I sold money counting systems and products throughout NC and SC. I enjoyed and succeeded in this position until my son and daughter were involved in a serious auto accident, which resulted in my not being able to cover my sales territory any longer. During my 30+ years in sales, I learned a lot about the workings of many large and small companies and how to deal with a variety of people and situations. After Glory, I moved to Charlotte in 2000 to be close to my children and became a financial advisor for Allmerica Financial. The stock market had the biggest losses since the Great Depression during this time, through no fault of mine (but assisted by the terrorist attack on the US in 2001). I enjoyed this position and in helping others with their investments, retirements and insurance needs. If you review the content of this book, you will find helpful chapters on Biggest Decisions, Buying a Home, Managing Money, Retirement Savings, Avoiding Debt, Respecting Authority, Parenting, Wisdom, Success, Contentment, Change, Life's Difficulties, Facts of Life, Leaving a Legacy, Will or Trust and others.

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